74 Notes on Old Delhi. [No. 2, 



On the construction of the llosques. 



At p. xlviii General Cunningham speaks of Qutbud-din's 

 mosque as a wall pierced by a line of seven arches. This must 

 surely he a lapsus calami for Jive, which is the true number, the 

 colonnade being carried into the mosque by a continuation of the 

 straight roof of the arcade. 



A great difficidty I conceive with regard to these buildings is the 

 manner in which the body of the mosques was roofed over. 

 Enough, however, remains to show clearly that the line of the roof 

 cut the arches, and that even columns stood in, and on the line of 

 the open arches. Barbarous as it may appear that these noble 

 arches should have their beauty marred, by being cut at about half 

 their height, by the line of the roof of the room behind, there can 

 be no doubt from an inspection of the ground, that such was the 

 case ; and it should be remembered, that there is no connection 

 between the arts of sculpture and architecture, and that it is in no 

 sense improbable that the men, who coidd carve the pillars of the 

 so-called ' But-khanah,' and cover the mosque wall with its elaborate 

 and delicate tracery, would be still quite incompetent to attempt 

 the feat of raising the body of the mosque to the height required 

 to correspond to the lofty wall which the conqueror directed to be 

 built : in fact, the whole mosque is clearly the work of men who 

 did not know how to extend the appliances and skill which sufficed 

 for Hindu temples, low in height and limited in area, to the more' 

 difficult task now imposed on them ; while many proofs can be 

 drawn from the early Pat'han buildings to show that at the time of 

 the conquest they had to depend on their Hindu subjects, and that 

 the glories of Pat'han architecture were the results of the subsequent 

 progress of a race now enjoying the wealth of India, and the 

 leisure which such fortune brings. One other question anent the 

 roof remains ; viz., whether the mosque itself was a two-storied 

 building or not. On mature consideration, I am inclined to 

 believe not, as in one place, a dome still remains above the first 

 floor, which is coated on the outside in the same manner as the 

 other domes are, which were exposed to the weather ; whereas, if a 

 second floor had been superimposed, this would probably have 



